Hi,

Could anyone advise us what is a reasonable cost for a will. Our lawyer is trying to charge us €1000 plus the cost of notary and translators.

Any comments would be very gratefully received.

Regards
J

Sorry, that's €1000 each.

Ours was about 500 euros in total for everything for 2. Most of that cost was the notary. Our solicitor was very reasonable (and solicitors are usually much cheaper than lawyers).

Sarah

We had a quote of our lawyer a month ago, which was €1000 for two wills, all other fees included.

BB

That sounds extremely expensive. We paid less than half of that for our wills that were drawn up by our Advogda. That included going to the Notary with us to sign and providing a second witness. One of our local Portuguese friends came as the first witness.

Agree, it should be about 500 euros in total especially if you use a solicitor and not a lawyer
Joao

Have just checked ours, we got them last year at the Notary in Tavira and the cost was 196 euros 65cents each, our lawyer was also quoting silly prices. You require 2 witnesses who can speak Portuguese, we got 2 of the girls from the estate agents to be ours.

The wide variation costs are interesting and I wonder if it is comparing like with like.

Our Lawyer quoted the €1000 for two wills with all fees, but also said that in her opinion we could rely on our English ones, as long as they are translated in to Portuguese.

Our English solicitor though, thought we should have Portuguese wills, so we are still deliberating. Typical really, two legal people different opinions.

The following link is useful, and the conclusion seems to be, have a Portuguese will, which I think we will do, although it does offer two types.

http://www.nevillederougemont.com/news.html

See the item on succession.

Nothing clear cut however, like all legal people, nothing seems straight forward.

BB

As I understand it - sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong - I believe it is advisable to have a Portuguese will. Unlike the UK where the property would automatically pass to the spouse I believe that under Portuguese law unless you specify otherwise it would be divided between the surviving partner and any children you might have. A bit like the French system hence the gradual diminishing of estates. Personally I prefer to have it clear cut long before you have to face the problem - that's why we had our wills prepared with 100% going to the surviving partner. Others may prefer to do otherwise.

This is what I understand. We wrote ours years ago and stipulated that if there was any doubt it should be carried out in accordance with our English wills.

Understand there is some legislation in the pipeline to dispense with the services of a Notary if a Will is made through a Advogado.